Sometime in the first half of Tuesday, 21 February, the directors of Tata Sons Ltd will meet in the boardroom at Bombay House, the conglomerate’s iconic headquarters in south Mumbai. Interim chairman Ratan Tata, 79, will chair the meeting, which has been called to mark Natarajan Chandrasekaran’s “assumption of charge”, as a Tata spokesperson put it. The 53-year-old Chandrasekaran will be the first chairman of the $103 billion Tata group with no family links to the Tatas, although he has spent all his working life at one Tata company, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS). Read original article here.

Expect a visit from taxman if you've ignored I-T dept's email

The Economic Times

Income Tax officials could soon be at your doorstep if you have deposited a huge amount during the note-swapping exercise last year, and have not yet explained the source of the cash. "We have tried to keep the exercise non-intrusive. But if people have not come forward, then some kind of verification is needed especially in cases that involve deposits of large sums," a senior income-tax department official told ET. Under the 'Operation Clean Money', the I-T department had sent out SMSes and e-mails to about 18 lakh people who deposited over Rs 5 lakh each during the 50-day window from November 10 to December 30, because the desposits did not tally with their income. Read original article here.

ArthVeda plans to raise $1 billion for affordable housing

The Economic Times

ArthVeda Fund Management, part of financial services conglomerate Wadhawan Global Capital, is planning to raise $1 billion to invest in affordable housing projects across the country, said a top company official. The asset management company recently received $250 million commitment from Qatar Holding, part of Qatar sovereign fund, for its affordable, low and middle income housing fund. This is the first such commitment received by an Indian fund following the Budget 2017 proposal to grant affordable housing infrastructure status. Read original article here.

Why Nasscom should retire its forecasts permanently

LiveMint

Nasscom has deferred the release of its annual revenue forecast for the financial year 2017-18 by a quarter. The software services industry lobby group spoke of uncertainties in the short-term, and the need to have deeper interactions with customers and vendors before making a reliable projection for FY18. In any case, Nasscom’s practice of providing a growth forecast in the first half of February was strange. According to an analyst at a domestic institutional brokerage, this is much before companies complete their budgets for the coming year, making Nasscom’s growth target more of a guesstimate. A company executive at a top-tier IT company concurs, adding that the methodology used to come up with the forecasts is unscientific. In this backdrop, it seems best that the annual forecasts in February are stopped. Read original article here.

Eveready plans to revamp tea business, could be spun off into a subsidiary

LiveMint

Battery maker Eveready Industries India Ltd on Monday said its board has approved a plan to restructure the company’s packet tea business, which could be spun off into a separate subsidiary in future. The company said in a regulatory filing that its board had authorized its managing director Amritanshu Khaitan to evaluate all possible ways of strengthening the packet tea business, which in fiscal 2016 clocked Rs72 crore in revenue. “While the packet tea business will continue to leverage (Eveready’s) widespread distribution network, we shall examine all other options (such as) induction of a strategic partner,” Khaitan said in a statement. Read original article here.

TCS to buy back 2.85% shares worth Rs16,000 crore

LiveMint

Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) said on Monday that it would buy back shares worth Rs16,000 crore at a fixed price of Rs2,850 each. This is an 18.3% premium over TCS’s share price ahead of the announcement. The company plans to buy back 56.1 million shares, or 2.85% of its equity capital. The size of the buyback, TCS’s first and India’s largest, seems impressive, but it barely makes up for low payouts in the past. Read original article here.

Flipkart, Microsoft announce strategic cloud partnership

LiveMint

Microsoft Corp. on Monday announced a strategic partnership with Flipkart under which, for a start, the online retailer will adopt Microsoft Azure as its exclusive public cloud computing platform. One person familiar with the matter said Microsoft may pick up a small stake in Flipkart as part of the partnership, although no deal to that effect has been signed yet. Mint couldn’t confirm if Microsoft will be one of the investors in Flipkart’s next funding round. Read original article here.

Abbott likely to withdraw high-end stents

Business Standard

Abbott, market leader in premium cardiac stents, may withdraw its products from India following the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority’s (NPPA’s) order to cap prices last week. NPPA set a price cap of Rs 7,260 on bare metal stents and Rs 29,600 on drug eluting and biodegradable ones. “Abbott may withdraw its Xience Alpine and its dissolving stent, Absorb,” said a distributor on the basis of informal communication. Read original article here.

Uber's partnership with Reliance Jio means more competition for Paytm

Business Standard

India’s largest digital wallet, Paytm, will face competition from Reliance Jio Infocomm for making payments on ride-hailing platform Uber, its largest merchant partner in the country. Uber and Reliance Jio announced the signing of a strategic partnership on Monday that would allow users of the San Francisco-based company’s services to pay for rides using Jio Money. In addition, users of Jio Money will have the option of booking a ride on Uber from within the app. “Digital payments have become part of our everyday lives and by integrating Jio Money as a payment option, our riders will have the ability to use a familiar and consistent payment experience,” said Madhu Kannan, chief business officer for India and emerging markets at Uber. Read original article here.

Day care chain IPSAA Holdings stitches strategic deal

VC Circle

Day care chain IPSAA Holdings Pvt. Ltd has acquired a controlling stake in a rival firm as the two companies look to tap into the burgeoning sector driven by a rising number of working professionals, founders of both the companies told News Corp VCCircle. India's pre-school or child care market has seen some private equity (PE) activity in the past few years, but a lot of potential remains untapped as the sector is largely unorganised. Read original article here.

Matrix Partners to fully exit from hospital chain Cloudnine

VC Circle

Kids Clinic India Pvt. Ltd, which operates maternity and infant care chain Cloudnine Hospitals, said on Monday multi-stage venture investor Matrix Partners has decided to sell its entire stake in the company. Investment bank Spark Capital has been hired to facilitate Matrix Partners’ exit, Cloudnine said in a statement. Matrix Partners had initially invested $9.95 million in Cloudnine in 2011, and later put more money along with Sequoia Capital in 2013 and 2015. It made a partial exit in December 2015 when private equity firm True North invested Rs 400 crore (about $60 million) for a significant minority stake in Cloudnine. Read original article here.

Manipal ties up with CDC Group to float $75 mn healthcare fund

VC Circle

Manipal Education and Medical Group (Manipal Group), a privately held conglomerate focused on education, healthcare and research, is partnering with UK-based development financial institution CDC Group Plc to float a Rs 500 crore (around $75 million) healthcare fund, according to a media report. The fund will invest in 'out-of-hospital' care companies, like diagnostics and home-care services in India, Africa and South Asia, The Economic Times reported, citing executives of both the firms. Ranjan Pai, CEO of Manipal Group, told the newspaper that the fund will prefer to provide individual investment above $10 million per transaction. Read original article here.

International:

Why #DeleteUber is trending on Twitter again

The Economic Times

Less than a month after Uber provoked massive reactions from the online community leading to the hashtag '#DeleteUber' trending on social media channels, a former Uber engineer's blogpost last Sunday has revived the call to boycott the app-based cab aggregator's services. In the nearly 3,000-word piece titled 'Reflecting On One Very, Very Strange Year At Uber', Susan Fowler spoke about instances of sexism directed at her since she joined the company in November 2015. Read original article here.

Accenture has acquired one of the biggest digital agencies in Germany

Business Insider

Accenture Interactive announced on Monday it is acquiring 62% of the German digital agency SinnerSchrader. The agency, which went public in 1999, was ranked the sixth biggest digital agency in Germany last year by the advertising news website Horizont. SinnerSchrader has 448 employees and generated $47 million in revenue in 2016. Accenture's offer of $9 a share values SinnerSchrader at just over $100 million. Accenture plans to offer the remaining shareholders the same share price to complete a full takeover. Read original article here.

Snap starts selling Spectacles online in the US for $130

Tech Crunch

Snap wants to prove to investors in its upcoming IPO that Spectacles can earn money for its business, not just be a brand stunt. So today, Snap begins selling its video-recording sunglasses Spectacles openly online for $129.99 in the U.S. at Spectacles.com. Previously it only dispensed them from Snapbot vending machines in surprise locations and its NYC pop-up store for the last three months. Snap has now closed that pop-up, and tells me “Snapbots will continue to land in surprising locations around the U.S. following a brief “nap” :) “. Buyers should expect to wait two to four weeks for their Spectacles to ship, and households are limited to 6 pairs. People can also now buy $49.99 charging cases and $9.99 charging cords from Snap, which will no longer be sold on Amazon. Read original article here.

Temasek jumps into China’s bike-rental startup war with investment in Mobike

Tech Crunch

Temasek, Singapore’s state-owned investment firm, has jumped into China’s on-demand cycle war after it backed Mobike. China’s ride-sharing war is last year’s news. The big battle between Uber and Didi Chuxing is essentially over after the latter agreed to buy the former’s China-based business. The new startup drama du jour is in bikes — services that let you find a rental in the city using a mobile app and GPS-enabled cycles — and Mobike is the busiest startup out there. Read original article here.

Alibaba’s Ant Financial extends global reach with first investment in the Philippines

Tech Crunch

Alibaba affiliate Ant Financial has again extended its global reach after it completed its maiden investment in the Philippines. The company, which manages payment service Alipay and Alibaba’s digital banking services, and is valued at $60 million, said it made an undisclosed investment in Mynt, a financial venture from Globe Telecom. Mynt’s interests include a micro-payment service and a mobile loan service, areas that give it plenty in common with Ant Financial. Globe, meanwhile, is the Philippines’ largest operator with 66.6 million subscribers — that’s just over 50 percent market share. Read original article here.

Uber said it's opening an "urgent investigation" after a former employee made public allegations of sexism and harassment at the company. Susan Fowler, an engineer who published a blog post on Sunday detailing her experience at Uber, claimed the company refused to do more than issue a warning to a superior after she and other women complained about sexual harassment. Read original article here.

Amazon hiring 5,000 workers in U.K. despite Brexit fears

CNN

Amazon said Monday that it will hire 5,000 new employees in the U.K. this year, making it the latest elite tech firm to brush aside fears over the country's exit from the European Union. The e-commerce giant -- which already employs 19,000 full-time workers in the U.K. -- said it plans to hire for a wide range of positions: software developers, engineers, technicians, managers and HR specialists. Read original article here.

China’s Alibaba Teams Up With Traditional Retailer

The Wall Street Journal

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is forming a strategic partnership with brick-and-mortar retailer Bailian Group in a deal that underscores the continued importance of traditional retailing. “The companies will leverage the power of big data to achieve integration between offline stores, merchandise, logistics and payment tools with the ultimate aim of elevating efficiency and overall consumer experience,” the online retailer said Monday. Read original article here.

Failed $143 Billion Deal Raises Pressure on Unilever, Kraft

The Wall Street Journal

Deal talks between Kraft Heinz Co. and Unilever PLC are dead, but both consumer-goods giants now find themselves under heightened pressure to make bold moves to accelerate growth. Unilever shares fell 6.6% in London Monday after Kraft Heinz dropped its $143 billion bid for its rival—partly reversing a 13% jump on Friday, when the offer became public. Read original article here.

Zendesk invests in Manila; opens new APAC 'Customer Experience Hub'

The Economic Times

Zendesk has launched a new office in Manila, Philippines with a capacity for over 200 people, creating a ‘Customer Experience Hub’ for the APAC region. The APAC region is a key focus for Zendesk with paid customer accounts growing by over 35% year-over-year as of 2016 end. The number of employees grew by over 50% during the same period. Manila offers access to a local pool of highly skilled, technical talent with strong English language ability thereby making it the ideal fit for Zendesk’s regional customer experience hub. Read original article here.

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